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As the race between Mitt Romney and ‘Not Romney’ approaches Iowa, THE WEEKLY STANDARD's Jonathan Last reveals a serious problem with Romney’s electoral history. Romney is a one-term governor who's lost 17 of 22 times his name has appeared on a ballot. "Aside from getting votes, he's a great candidate," says Last.

Newt Gingrich’s rapid rise in the GOP’s Whac-a-Mole primary makes him the latest ‘Not Romney’ frontrunner. But can Gingrich earn the support of Tea Party activists like the other ‘Not Romneys’ before him?

But two politicians supported by Tea Party activists say, "Not so fast."

Sentaor Rand Paul says he knows the Tea Party movement. And Newt Gingrich is no Tea Party guy. Rep. Michelle Bachmann goes even further suggesting Gingrich is a Romney-esque ‘Not Romney.’

“If you look at Newt/Romney, they were for ObamaCare principles,” she said at Saturday’s presidential debate. “If you look at Newt/Romney, they were for cap and trade … And if you look at Newt/Romney, they were for the $700 billion bailout.”

More by Owen Brennan

Gingrich and Romney also share a record of being flexible with political principles. Rep. Ron Paul’s campaign recently released a sharply focused ad calling Gingrich a serial hypocrite. The Democrat National Committee chose a carpet bombing strategy, releasing a 4-minute video that is nothing short of the Magnum Opus for Mitt Romney Flip Flops.

So how does one flip-flopping candidate who has argued to expand the size and scope of government earn the interest of the Tea Party while the other does not?

“Newt and Mitt are more Hamiltonian than Jeffersonian,” explains Michael Patrick Leahy, an organizer, author and co-founder of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition. “The difference is that Newt will talk to the Tea Parties.”

Romney’s refusal to meet with Tea Party groups has hurt his campaign across the country. In Florida, where Romney placed third in an early straw poll, Tea Party activists helped Cain score the early victory that briefly propelled his campaign to the top tier.

“Cain was all over Florida. He surprised everybody, but he didn’t surprise me,” said Ryan Hecker, a Tea Party activist in Texas who has risen through the ranks to become the chief operating officer of Freedomworks for America. “Cain was having individual Tea Party dinners throughout Florida. That was his focus: Get Tea Party support.”

Months later, the Romney campaign still hasn’t learned the lesson. “Mitt Romney will not give us the time of day,” explains Billie Tucker, co-founder of First Coast Tea Party in Florida.

“We may not be his base,” she says, with an emphasis on his. “But we’re a big group.” That statement belies the success of Florida Tea Party activists in building support and electing candidates like Rep. Allen West , Senator Marco Rubio and Gov. Rick Scott.

Can Hamiltonian Gingrich earn enough Tea Party support to defeat Hamiltonian Romney?

“Gingrich is relevant to the Tea Party,” says Hecker, citing how Gingrich’s staff worked with Tea Party groups to build the movement. Gingrich also promoted Hecker’s innovative, grassroots project, The Contract From America. Tea Party activists also give Gingrich credit for signing on to the Tax Day Tea Party in 2009, which helped give the movement legitimacy.

“Gingrich has been very clever in using the energy of the movement to propel his campaign in ways that Romney has just been tone deaf,” Leahy says. Though he is skeptical Gingrich can overcome some of the bad ideas produced in the past, “He’s an inconsistent idea factory, which is part of the problem.”